


Snapshots of the Past

by cockabeetle, Lisbon (curseofbunny)



Series: Owari Magica [25]
Category: Owari Magica
Genre: Gen, Gossip, Sewing, Theater Club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26770699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cockabeetle/pseuds/cockabeetle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/curseofbunny/pseuds/Lisbon
Summary: this takes place in June of 2019Fawn and Aeron get along and talk about magi! their friends sure were something...
Relationships: Aeron Geraldson&Buck Dolibor, Fawn Beliveau&Midge
Series: Owari Magica [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815574





	Snapshots of the Past

**Author's Note:**

> POINTS  
> Total: 1937  
> Beetle/Aeron: 980 words at 490 +450 +50 = 990pts  
> Bun/Fawn: 957 words at 480 +450 = 930pts

Aeron hates June 3rd. It's the last day they saw their best only friend, and the last time they really... felt content. They've been trying to keep hope, and while they've searched most places they could think to look for Buck, he's nowhere to be seen. There are no traces of him, even just leaving the city.  
Sometimes, this day falls after school has ended, and they get to wallow at home in a cocoon of misery, or frantically search seaford for signs for their friend's departure, but... this year, school ends on the fourth. So Aeron sits in the clothing department of the theater club, viciously stabbing the skirt of a dress they were trying to embroider before the day ends. They're a little too aggressive to be categorized as anything but 'frustrated'.

Fawn had been watching the "embroidery" for a good ten minutes. When she caught the teacher's eye, the teacher shook her head and mimed hiding in her book. Great... Fawn was bad at the whole "comfort" thing. She wasn't much better at the "calming people down" thing or even just the "checking in on people" stuff. But here she was, playing with her fingers and standing to the side of her rival, leaning one hip against the table. After a minute of just watching, she lifts a hand to cough, hoping it would be obnoxious enough to get the other's attention.

The cough catches Aeron's attention, and they glance up with a frown.  
"...Yes?" They continue embroidering the line of Ivy they were making on the dress, though their movements have calmed a little, at the distraction.

Fawn flashes a smile. "So, what's on your mind? Anything in particular?" She didn't miss how their actions stuttered and slowed.

Aeron blinked at her, and glanced down at their work, mulling over what to say.  
"I... lost track a friend today, a couple years ago. The trail's gone almost completely cold, and I can't even go looking." They trail off with a sigh, and tie off the thread they'd been using, calling it down for now.

"Oh. So this is the nostalgia and mourning day. Why not skip school?" Fawn settled down so that she was sitting on the table.

Aeron grimaced.  
"The maids won't let me skip days unless I'm properly sick or distraught, and if I were to try and sneak out after pretending to fit that bill they'd make it so I'd have even less options to call out. And if I tried to sneak off campus they'd use it as an excuse to petition for me to be shipped to a boarding school." Their shoulders sag.  
"I barely got the right to go to public schools, I'd really rather not lose it."

Fawn whistled. "Ouch. So how tight of a leash do they have on you? Do you atleast get to do what you want after school, or are you theirs then too?" She picked up a stray piece of lace, inspecting it.

"I'm usually pretty free, I guess. I just have to make sure I don't do anything that reflects badly on the family. Schooling is important." Aeron puts their needle and thread away, rubbing idly at a crick in their neck.

"Reflects badly on the family... You sound like you're in the mob. Is that your secret?" Her eyebrows raised. "That would be pretty cool. Mobster heir apparent, Aeron. Best monarch on this side of the coast." She offered a grin. Atleast with some ribbing, the other relaxed.

Aeron rolled their eyes.  
"My father is a wealthy white man, an old money candy company. If there's a connection to the mob there, it'd have to be from Sweden or something, and I don't know if Sweden even has a mob." They can't help the little snort at Fawn's ribbing, though.  
"It's not that I have a lot of expectations to live up to, but I can't go around looking like an idiot or a troublemaker. How could Father keep taking his wife on glorious cruises around the world if he has to go home and discipline his unruly child?"

Fawn shrugged. "Maybe someone could discipline you for them? Come on, rich kid at the public school, never had an offer like that?" She crossed her legs. "The glamour and the glitz definitely rubbed off on you."

Aeron wrinkled their nose.  
"That sounds so dubious. 'Discipline me for them', what am I, a pet?" They shook their head.  
"I mean, I try not to let the whole... rich kid thing color how I treat anyone, it's not like I wanted to be... that? I picked public schooling so I could maybe get something of a normal childhood out of it. I guess I wouldn't actually know what 'normal' is, though..." They glance away.

"Normal is overrated. We're better than that. Don't forget, kid." She slides forwards and into their space. "Has anyone been messing with you? Because I know some buff techies who could put them in their place. Only one who gets to be mean to you is me, you know that, right?"

Aeron snorts.  
"I don't really think I need protection from a bit of teasing, Fawn. It's nothing I haven't heard a million times before. Are you bothered by something? You're not usually this pushy."

"Maybe I'm missing an old friend too. How long has it been since your friend went missing? Maybe I could help." She let her hands rest in her pockets as she looked down at Aeron. She thought about dear old Midge every day. She got it. If there was something she could do, she would.

Aeron glanced away again, scratching at their neck lightly.  
"2 years or so. It's not been that long but... I keep feeling like if I just looked harder, were... better, maybe I'd have found him by now."

"Around when that big storm hit? Is that when your friend got misplaced?" Her eyebrow rose again. That sure was a coincidence...

"Yeah, a little after, but... yeah." Aeron raised their eyebrows.  
"When did yours wander off?"

"Around then. Maybe a little before. She warned me that there was something big coming. Yours have anything to say about it?" For the first time since Midge left her door, Fawn remembers the little smile on the girl's face. She shakes her head to clear the thought.

"Just that it was... like other stuff he'd seen. He got out of town the same time I did, evacuated with me. We got back and he was... restless." Aeron tilted their head at her, eyebrows raised.  
"Was yours..."

Fawn looked them over before looking up to where their teacher was watching Netflix and knitting. "Was yours?"

Aeron thought for a moment, before pulling a pen from a pocket to draw an approximation of Buck's soul gem on the back of their hand. They held it out for Fawn to see, eyebrows still raised.  
"Like this?"

Fawn nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah. You get it. Holy shit."

Aeron laughed, and nodded.  
"I do. And... you do, too. God... I didn't think I'd ever get to talk about it once... Buck disappeared." They smile, for a few seconds, before their face smooths out again.  
"Did you?"

Fawn shrugged, grabbing a chair to sit down properly this time. She also snagged a sewing needle from where she'd stuck it in the ruffles of her top, and a spare piece of fabric, and a spool of thread. "I don't know. I wanted to, and I wanted to find more of them, but I wasn't sure too. Midge just left so quick, and I didn't have anywhere to go. What do you think about it all?"

"Buck talked about the others around once or twice, but he didn't really let me know who they were, or how many. Mostly it was just... me, and him, and... that was enough." Aeron sighed, glancing down at the dress they'd stopped mutilating.

"Midge didn't let me out much either." She bumped their knee with her foot, leaning back as she starts sewing the scrap into a pillow-shape. "Don't get beat up about it. I think all magi just get secretive when they make that deal."

Aeron huffs.  
"Yeah, the only part of magic Buck didn't have a problem with was his wish. Everything else was worth a 5 page essay on 'The dangers of'."

"Seriously?" Fawn shook her head. "Wow. Weird. What was he thinking wasn't worth it?"

"Fighting, soul gems, the different classes, who wants to fight who, the monsters... just about everything." Aeron snorted.  
"But I kinda think it's totally worth it, I mean... magic."

Fawn nodded, holding up a hand. "Absolutely. Magic is great. And classes and fighting and monsters are great too, I mean, have you seen the witches?"

"I haven't... I really wanted to, but it did seem dangerous." Aeron grinned.

Fawn nodded. "Oh, so dangerous. But she couldn't get away with leaving me outside when the stupid labyrinths sucked me in too! Oh, I loved it. Like this- this huge circus tent!"

"Really? Were they all circus-themed?" Aeron bounced a little, excited despite their blank face.  
"That sounds so cool!"

She nodded back. "Mhm! There were like- do you remember that old movie Coraline? There were mice with cheese wheel heads, and a cotton candy princess sitting on a throne and screaming, and lions with big popcorn manes!! Midge didn't want me to, but I ate some of the popcorn. Was sick for a week."

"Gross! I mean... I'd have done the same thing!" Aeron grinned.

"Right?" She nodded, her hair bouncing along with the motion. "Who wouldn't have?"

"Someone boring, I think." Aeron laughed, before smoothing their face out again.  
"Did you two ever find anything out about being magi?"

She shook her head. "I mean, I don't think so? What more do you need to know about it?"

Aeron thought for a moment.  
"You didn't learn anything about the gems?" They wondered if they should keep quiet about that information, they're suddenly considering how bad it might sound...

She glanced at them. "Other than that they're cool? And they need to stay clean? Nothing, why?"

"...Buck and I found out what they are." Aeron scratched their cheek.  
"I kinda realize I probably shouldn't talk about it like it's normal, it did seem a little freaky..."

She felt her eyebrows rising. "Gonna share with the class, hm?"

"...fine. Soul gems are the physical manifestation of a magi's soul. Their bodies are also harder to injure, so that they're better at fighting."

That was the opposite of what she had been expecting. All she could think about was when they slept, curled around the gem, or when Flow curled up at their heads and told them to be careful with it. "... Seriously?"

"Yes." Aeron glanced towards the teacher, and then glances at Fawn again.  
"If a magi gets separated from their gem, they fall unconscious at about 20 feet."

She didn't like that information. Fawn frowned and shook her head. "Okay, that's... fair. Maybe I just haven't seen my friend in too long. But... yeah, magic is still worth it."

"I think so too. Magic is well worth that sort of price." Aeron nodded to themselves.  
"Getting a reality bending wish for something like the price of being able to hold your soul is a pretty good deal."

She nodded. "I guess... it's hard to think about. I literally had her soul in my hands, didn't I?"

"Yeah. I held his more often than he did, he was always scared of dropping it."

"And they were always so excited about their outfits, right? Midge just loved hers." She shook her head. "She looked so pretty."

"Buck looked just like he stepped out of a fairytale. Like a Prince from a Disney Movie." Aeron smiled softly, remembering their friend's smile.  
"He was always so excited to show it off, he had a crown and a cape. He wished to be able to talk to animals."

"Oh that's so sweet! Midge- well," Her cheeks colored. "It's personal, what Midge wished for. She looked like a princess, though. Blue and gold and- and she had this telephone boomerang, and it was so cool!"

"I understand." Aeron offered a hand to Fawn, smiling a little.  
"Buck had a golden microphone he could sing into. He didn't really know how to attack with it, though. Never seemed to know what he was supposed to do with something so... mundane."

She took their hand and squeezed it. "I wish I knew where they were. I'd bring them both back."

"I wish I did, too. Or even just a trail to follow. I'd have followed him to the ends of the earth..." they trail off, biting their lip.  
"Why didn't he take me with him?"

Fawn offered them a smile. "Maybe... it's better he didn't. Because you're still here. And you're not alone."

Aeron blinked, and then gave her a smile back.  
"Yeah... and neither are you."


End file.
